Top seed Tongsalee advances to semifinals
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Top seed Napaporn Tongsalee of Thailand advanced to semifinals of the US$10,000 Indonesia Women's Circuit here on Thursday as the host team was assured a place in the women's singles final.
Tongsalee, who is ranked 312th in the world, defeated Geeta Manohar of India 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals to face seventh seed Chan Yung-Jan of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals.
Chan edged out fourth seed Thassah Vitayaviroj of Thailand 6- 4, 6-2.
The other semifinal match ensured an all-Indonesian tussle with unseeded Ayu Fani Damayanti taking on third seed Liza Andriyani and sixth seed Septi Mende facing second seed Sandy Gumulya in the quarterfinals.
The winners of the matches will meet each other in the semifinals on Friday.
Sandy, who was among the Indonesian women's tennis team in the Fed Cup win over Slovenia in July, looked forward to playing her close friend Septi after her doubles bid crashed.
"I hope that I can win the match against Septi," Sandy said after her shocking loss in the doubles with Tongsalee.
Sandy and Tongsalee, who were the top seeds in the tournament, went down to unseeded Can Yung-Jan and Thailand's Pichittra Thongdach 6-4, 7-6 (4).
"Well, our opponents played better today. We had a chance to win the second set when we led 5-4, but we made many mistakes and we just let it slip," Sandy said.
The second set progressed closely with the two sides breaking each other's serve several times.
They took turn of leading throughout the set before Sandy and Tongsalee seemed exhausted to leave Chan and Thongdach to hit the final and punishing blow with a 7-4 win in tiebreak.
In another quarterfinal match, Liza, who paired with Thassah Vitayaviroj of Thailand, defeated Prim Buaklee of Thailand and Krushmi Takemoto of Japan 6-1, 6-1.
The other two doubles quarterfinal matches will be held on Friday. Naoko Horikawa of Japan and Orawan Lamangthong of Thailand will play against Ayu and Septi Mende of Indonesia, while Lavinia Tananta and Golda Rubina will meet Wukirasih Sawondari and Minori Takemoto of Japan.